Inferno

Chapter 1: The Beginning of a Spark . . .

Fire.

The flakes of snow that silently fell outside the window did nothing to freeze the place beyond the window. Inside, the soft glow of flames silently singing in the comfort of the hearth. Bright embers burning against the dark of the wooden logs, the only light shining in the Winter's darkness. It was a blessed warmth that hugged you lovingly and expelled the frost entwining across your skin.

Pain.

The screams of the people filled the sky and turned it into a bloody red. Ashes from the flames scattered across the air and blinded those stumbling to get away. It had torn mercilessly at the town as it razed, burning away cherished memories and the people they were shared with. It was wild, and untamed monster that engulfed everything in its path and left only the misery and pain in the hearts of weeping survivors.

Magic.

An array of a million colors dancing across the heavens all at once, painting the blue with the most brilliant of hues. It changed constantly, the myriad of flames transforming. It shone from the colors of the starry night of the moonlit woods, to the thousand shades of precious gemstones hidden in the crystal caverns in the deepest of earth.

This was what fire truly was. It was the blazing red heat of the scorching flames that burned and comforted, the fierce fire that cannot be calmed. It was the wind's own light green flames, precise and smooth as the fire would only tickle your skin and burn those you scorn. It changes and becomes unpredictable as the masters of water. Their flames are the coldest of them all, their icy fire burning mercilessly as soon as they draw you in with their alluring charms. Their motions are fluid, graceful, and deadly. But not the fire of the Earthen hopes. Magma heralds as ground-shattering fire rises from the earth's wounds and seeps in between cracks. It changes the enchantment of the ever-green forest to a burning wasteland of death, before another forest rises again from the ashes.

The colors of the flames align to the creature that was born with it. A majestic creature of the sun's creation and nature's greatest masterpiece.

This is what we are. This is what we're meant to be.

We are, the Phoenixes reborn.

~*~

"Momma, momma! Please tell me the story again! The one with the Dragon and the Phoenix!"

A woman chuckled as she bent down to scoop her six-year-old son into her arms. She was a beautiful lady of her late twenties, with silvery hair of moonbeams carefully woven into a loose braid that hung to the side. Her soft, violet eyes gleamed alight with tender love as she stared at her child.

"Alright my dear," She kissed his forehead as she set him down on the little bed that is his own. "But are you sure you're not getting tired of listening to that story?"

The boy quickly shook his head as he disappeared underneath the covers, yelling out, "No! I'll never get old of that story, momma! Never ever, ever!"

The woman chuckled as she lifted the sheets up to look at her squirming son. "Whatever you say, sweetie."

"Yay!"

"But did you brush your teeth yet?" The woman smiled mischievously.

Her little boy turned red and said, "Uh. . ."

She shook her head she laughed. "Go and brush your teeth first, then I'll tell you the story."

"Yes momma!" He quickly answered, throwing the sheets off him as his little feet pounded across the wooden floor to the bathroom.